How does one get about deciphering a cron job really quickly?

Question

For example */5 * * * * is what ? Is there a reverse calculator?

I know that a cron job is set as :

minute hour dayOfMonth month dayOfWeek command

so............what is the /5 mean?

Thanks

Answer 1

/X essentially means 'the ones evenly divisible by X'. So */5 minutes means 'every five minutes'. See the manpage for more info.

Also: I think the / syntax might be a vixiecron extension, so it might not be available if you're working on non-free unices.